I’m going to start off by sharing the one thing that was most resonant with me, and then dive deeper into the core lessons from the book. My goal with these types of posts is to be concise to force myself to think about the main lesson and be able to explain the rest of the book to you like your five. Occasionally, you’ll see me refer to these posts as sources of inspiration for my own unique thinking.
Key Takeaway
The most common thing I’ve read about Naval is his approach to becoming wealthy (leverage, compounding, etc). However, I found that his emphasis on health is the most compelling part of his lifestyle. In the 2nd half of the book, he goes deep on his love for daily exercise, non-judgemental meditation / rational Buddhism, how he gets 8-9 hours of sleep, and how it all underpins his success.
I felt that this was a great reminder that all success starts with personal health. Without the right foundation, its very difficult to get anywhere simply because you can’t think or act intentionally.
Overall Review
The value of precision
I recently texted my friend about this book and said “I like how to the point he is”, to which he is responded with “I do appreciate his succinctness.” To me, this captures the core essence of Naval - he speaks in a few, very powerful words. And this is why it’s hard to pick just a few key quotes. Naval is so succinct that the book ends with two pages of rules and principles that encapsulate his way of being in the most succinct of ways. In addition to all the wisdom, I felt like just the idea of being careful and precise with each word and statement is something I can take into my day-to-day life.
Productize yourself
"Productize” and “yourself.” “Yourself” has uniqueness. “Productize” has leverage.”
A core lesson in the book is the idea of being yourself and scaling who you are. This will give you an unbeatable competitive advantage because no one can be more like you than you. I’ve read similar messages in tweetstorms from other content creators, but they always left me with this empty feeling of not really knowing myself and the unique value I could provide.
Fortunately, Naval acknowledges that learning about the specific knowledge you can provide can take almost a decade. But, when you do discover what is authentic to only you, you should double down on it and amplify who you are as quickly as you can.
This said - ask yourself:
What specific knowledge do you have that no one else does? Is this knowledge that makes work feel like play?
If you don’t have any specific knowledge that you’re aware of, take a few moments to think about what knowledge you want to pursue further or start pursuing.
Spend time making big decisions
“Spend more time making the big decisions. There are basically three really big decisions you make in your early life: where you live, who you’re with, and what you do.”
We make a lot of decisions day to day, some bigger than others, but none are bigger than the ones Naval is pointing out. This quote reminds me of a message I read in the One Thing by Gary Keller, who suggests, in as many words as possible, that you should focus on getting a single meaningful thing done each day and live with the chaos of minutiae.
Adding to what Naval is saying, thinking about what you want from life will clarify who you spend time with, how you spend your time, and where you spend your time. Think about this deeply and use it as a guide to get you where you want to go.
Adding to this, a similar message is stated in the quote:
“Play long-term games with long-term people.”
Which made me realize that spending time with people who think on a similar timescale will help you every step along your journey because their journey has a similar length.
Embrace reality
“The number one thing clouding us from being able to see reality is we have preconceived notions of the way it should be.”
I’ve written about this before here and really agree with what Naval is saying - there is truly nothing more powerful and potentially disruptive than not seeing reality as it is. Having a reality distortion field can help you see how the world can be, yet holding assumptions about the world can lead to miscommunication and suffering.
Conclusion
Eric Jorgenson did a great job organizing the philosophy of Naval. I’ve never written an almanack, and have only ready Poor Charlie’s in comparison, but I felt that Jorgenson focused on the core concepts of his message and provide the right level of depth.
My only complaint is that there was no history about Naval. For those who are newer to Naval’s philosophy (like me), knowing his personal life story from being born in India to become a successful entrepreneur and VC in Silicon Valley would have been a welcome addition.
Comments